Archive for the ‘Chess Tournaments’ Category

Return to Forever

It was a treat to go back to UC Berkeley for the January International organized by David Pruess and Arun Sharma. I taught at the UC Berkeley SIMS School (now called the i-school) in the spring of 1999 and in the fall of 1998 I was a post-doctoral researcher at the UC Berkeley Haas School.

Le Roy and Cedar, an intersection near the chess site (a Harry Potteresque abandoned schoolhouse)

Super Happy Lucky Cat

The chess was a bit of a tough slog.

In Round 1 I failed to spot a nice win in an ending. Actually I was simply worse (losing, really) in the early middlegame then white went wrong.

Black made it harder on himself but the next move is a real lemon handing a square over that his own king needs. Correct and rather elementary is 41…Bb2 42. a4 Bc3 43. b5 Ba5 and black will win in fairly short order.

An idea from GM Bologan’s autobiography. I believe Bologan beat GM Bareev in this line. My opponent after the game pointed out that Morozevich has tried another dangerous move here, 8. Qd3!? with a later idea of Neg5 and h2-h4.

Actually white can and should play on. He can play his B to d3 and launch a general kingside pawn storm, whereas black probably has to go for the passive retreat Be3-b6. White is somewhat better with no risk.

At this point black’s position is in ruins. The lights went out though and we had to relocate to the skittles room. This change of venue somehow bewitched white who went completely wrong in mild time trouble.

I don’t see the motivation for this. Black has castled, white has not. Black has a ready-made counterstrike in the center. Even so, Irina Krush and others have played it; so it’s a good thing for black to know. I recently enjoyed GM Ivan Sokolov’s “Best Games” oeuvre. He is a 4. Qc2 fanatic, and 5. e4 does not appear in his games! I deduce that he believes 5. a3 is stronger!

For some bizarre reason, also (earlier, Round 2) in this tournament, GM Magesh Panchanathan reacted here with the bad move 5…d6? conceding white a huge center. Black, in some weird Caissic injustice, won that game with a combinational finish – of course white misplayed because he must have overjoyed to see the lemon 5….d6.

All very nice, but black’s 10th move looks insanely risky and totally impractical. Why put the queen far afield when there is no need? I had analyzed this variation some time ago, and white’s 5th move looks very loosening (that’s why GM Sokolov always prefers 5. a3). All is well from black’s point of view after white’s 10th; his bishop is passively guarding a pawn on e5. The correct move is 10…Ndc5! and this looks dead equal. I wrote in to Chess Today and got a response from GM Golubev that while 10…Qh4 may be viable due to some improvement, 10…Ndc5 is probably safer. All of this was confirmed in this same tournament, (later game), as I found after writing in! Here is the second game. White didn’t need to lose the game, but still this indicates the correct treatment.

In another totally puzzling turn of events, black plays a bad Dragon line in the next game and the higher-rated white player strangely reacts badly and loses. But it’s all well known to be good for white. Go figure.

Quite simple and good for white is 11. Nd5 Bxd5 12. exd5 Qc7 13. Kb1 with the idea of Rd1-c1, c2-c4, and a later h2-h4. Black doesn’t have much play. It cuts out all the play that actually happened in this game. I totally tortured GM Kudrin (noted Dragon expert) with this in the early 1980s and it won some kind of stamp of approval as Kudrin adopted my treatment in his next tournament.

As an exercise to the reader, identify the key improvement early on in the above US Chess League game where white could have reached a huge plus. As a hint, it occurred at the “critical moment”. This improvement completely refutes black’s treatment. White probably missed it due to the very fast USCL time control.

Since Robson was leading the tournament, this opening choice was a terrible idea! Why don’t American players have safety openings? Now, OTOH (on the other hand), young Ray gets bravery points. But if the Dragon is not his regular opening (and it is not), it is a monumental and perverse task to “get used to” its idiosyncratic patterns. It’s a one-of-a-kind death-defying choice.

11. Bb3 h5

Personally I’ve always regarded this move (I believe popularized by Soltis first, maybe others?) with suspicion. It increases the force of Nd4-f5 sacrifices in many lines.

Maybe my theory is out of date, but 17…Re8! 18. Rxh5 gxh5 19. Qh2 (as in an old Short game, Short-Mandl Germany 1986 where black botched the defense and went down in flames) is met by 19…gxf3! 20. Qxh5 Bg4! and black holds. This happened in a game Lagumina – Magalotti, Forli 1991 and black indeed drew.

The game move looks really bad; i.e. immediately losing. Is it possible Robson was making stuff up in this, the sharpest of all opening choices?

18. Bh6??

A monumental blunder in return. It’s impossible to say what Chao was thinking. The guy is rated 2604 and he misses a win that any schoolboy would play – capture, capture, and mate! Isn’t that the entire point of the Yugoslav Attack?

Apparently black was down to increments. 33…Kg8! was bad (but not losing) for him after 34. Rxd6 Rf1+ 35. Rd1! but it was forced. But doesn’t white’s play over the last few moves look pretty random? Maybe he was in time trouble too.

34. Qh8+ Mate 1-0

For the gawking observers, what the HELL was going on this opening? Will we ever know?

Looking at this list of strong grandmasters, and noticing young GM Parmesan (Cheese) Negi, and other luminaries of the junior chess world, I predict the redoubtable Wesley So from the Philippines to have a monster result. Not sure if he will win it ahead of tough cookie Nispy or Arkady (Mr Vienna) Naiditsch, but So has a great shot at winning the “B”. So there! Recent games from Wesley (Wesley is the name of a crazed serial killer in books by Andrew Vachss, but that doesn’t relate to the Corus prediction) have been most impressive. Super young GM Giri is a force, but I think So having only half the letters brings double the chess to the table. Look for Giri to do well and So to do even better. Hopefully Naiditsch will lose in a Vienna causing him to CHANGE OPENINGS! I don’t like it when a strong GM repeats a single, narrow variation ad nauseum.

Kotronias, the Minimizer

In today’s action, we had a sad occurrence. In yesterday’s game, we had a very sad occurrence too. Unfortunately, the same player got the short end of the stick both times. A Greek Tragedy.GM V. Gashimov 2759 (Azerbaijan) – GM V. Kotronias 2599 (Greece)

I thought Gashimov was really cool when I thought his first name was “Vulgar” but unfortunately it’s just Vugar. Up to now, in his brief career, I have known for him for some dubious Benoni setups as black. Nevertheless, he gets Cojones points for resuscitating Benonis. But presto… he has a 2759 rating! What?!!The present game argues for some rating inflation. Kotronias, on the other hand, is a well respected chess author and veteran on the chess scene for many moon now.

I am surprised white (even with a 2759 rating, what miracles can occur here?) had not resigned already. Maybe they were blitzing on increment? Even so, black cannot avoid winning. For example, 61…f2 followed by Re2 and Re1+, or 61…d4. The pawns are unstoppable. There followed:

61…Rd4 61…f2 is really the simplest. The game now enters a Twilight Zone where black refuses various wins.

The solution is to tie black to the d5 pawn then gang up on f5 threatening a lethal sac.

34. Be2? A terrible follow-up. Even without much time, 34. Qf3! with a big edge was easy to spot. It is quite obvious the knight on h5 is immune and the d5 pawn is attacked. Things are grim for black: 34…Be6? 35. Ng7! wins, 34…Bc6 35. Bxf5 gxf5 36. Ng3! is cute, and 34…Qb6 35. Qxd5+ Be6 36. Qf3 keeps the knight on h5 immune.

4…Bd7?! LOL again! Black submits to white’s bully-boy ploy and transposes inadvisedly into an old Bronstein-Petrosian 1959 USSR Ch. game. Note his game is not at all bad here, but students of the Nezhmet-Mackenzie Wars (striking similarities to TV’s Clone Wars) know that black should pop into the juicy square with 4… Be4! 5. f3 Bg6 and white is hurting in all variations. For example, 6. h4 h5 7. Bd3 Bxd3 8. Qxd3 e6 and ewww. Or, 7. Ne2 hxg4 8. Nf4 Bh7 9. fxg4 e6 10. Nc3 c5! and black is faster. The nice thing is that black doesn’t have to do anything special, white’s problems are all self-inflicted with the 4. g4? lunge. Consult the above link for full gory details.

6… cxd5?! Boo! Black doesn’t follow through on his nice last move! Indicated was the logical and aesthetic knight jump 6…Nb4! exploiting the early g2-g4 opening of the c6-h1 diagonal. If 7. e6 (7. Qb3 Nxd5 8. Qxb7 Rb8 9. Qxa7 Nb4 10. Na3 Bxg4 11. Bd2 e6 and black is all right) 7…fxe6 8. Nf3 cxd5 and black is fine. Another humorous line: 7. Nc3 Qb6!? (7…Nxd5 is dead equal) and black can always take on d5 with the knight later. This game was just one big set of black missed opportunities.

This inquiry, coupled with the Caro weirdness we looked at in this article and also in the “refutation post” referenced above, propels my “findings” onto center stage for future USCL duels. Or, does it? :O 🙂

Concluding Remarks

Thank you Internet, for enabling the USCL and other chess online . The next image shows what the world would be like without the Internet.

The Inscrutable Chinese Dragon

I guess we could say it’s a gambit of structure (backward pawn on d6 after black moves e7-e5) for activity. It’s not to my taste at all, but so far this USCL season Shabalov has tried it versus Kudrin and Kiewra just tried it versus Bick. And black so far stands at 1-1.

In defense of the Chinese, I think it makes more sense than …a7-a6 which Magnus Carlsen tried a few times (notably getting crushed by Topalov). In case you were wondering how it got its name, Gallagher writes about its dubious origins in the 2002 NIC magazine. Some journalist just happened to be in China…

Conclusion: 11…Ne5 needs re-examination because the way this game goes isn’t very pleasant for black.

12. Bh6 Bxh6

It’s not risky per se to have the white queen drawn out to h6, but it can always go back and black has not gained time. 12… b5 13. Nd5 Nxb3+ 14. Nxb3 Bxh6 15. Qxh6 doesn’t look too different from the game and black has problems.

13. Qxh6 b5 The weird gambit 13… e5 14. Nde2 b5? (marginally better 14… Nxb3+ {Kurnosov-Pavlovic, Hastings 2009 but black faced the usual difficulties and white won} was played in Zambrana-Yuan, Sao Paulo 2008. White then played the lemon 15. h4? and lost but he should have taken on d6 with an edge.

14. Nd5! Of course! This is a key moment.

Decisions, Decisions

14…e6?! As Shabalov played against Kudrin earlier in the USCL year, but this position is just suffering for black. Die-hard Chinese-ites will play 14….e5 here and claim near-equality. And maybe they are right – it’s hard to break down black’s game. Afterthought: the move 14…e5 15. Nf5!? is interesting here and worth careful examination; white might keep a small plus. I don’t know how much 15. Nf5!? has been analyzed elsewhere; better ask Golubev. 🙂

From black’s point of view, it’s worth also looking at 14…Nxb3+. This is actually transposing, usually, to 14…e5. Then, 15. Nxb3 e5 is best met with 16. Nxf6+ Qxf6 17. h4!? or the simple 17. Kb1 and white has a small edge. Instead, Robson played 16. h4?! against Papp in Spice(B) 2009, and Papp gained equality after 16…Nxd5 17. Rxd5 Rb6. Papp lost later after weakening himself unnecessarily with …g6-g5? on the solid kingside and falling prey to a tactic. Conclusion: this is the last spot for black to avoid getting a lasting disadvantage with either 14….e5 or 14…Nxb3 (these two often converge). We’ll have to ask Golubev what he thinks.

15. Nxf6 Qxf6 16. h4 Qg7 17. Qg5! Excellent, as Kudrin played against Shabalov. Black is under pressure. This move pinpoints black’s positional deficiencies and is exactly why I don’t like the 14…e6?! line for black.

17…Nc4

It’s hard to recommend anything. What do the waiting 17…Rb7 or 17…Rfe8 accomplish? Shabalov played 17…Qe5 18. Ne2 Bc6 19. Rd2 Rfd8 20. Rhd1 Nb7 (clearly black is suffering) 21. Nf4 a5 22. a3 Re8 and here Kudrin could have capped his fine play with the powerful 23 .Qxe5! dxe5 24. Nd3 f6 (forced) 25. g4! and white will break up black’s king side structure with a winning edge. This nice sequence is hard to see in the rapid USCL time control. Unfortunately, Kudrin went wrong with 23. Nd3? Qxg5 24. hxg5 Kg7 25. e5 Red8 26. exd6 Rxd6 27. Ne5 (white is still better) 27…Rxd2 28. Rxd2 Be8 and now he missed another shot to keep the edge, 29. Ng4! stopping h6.

After Kudrin’s second lemon, 29. Ba2? h6! black was fine and went on to turn the tables in a key match victory, Kudrin (PHI) – Shabalov (TEN) USCL 2009.

18. Bxc4 bxc4 19. h5?! 19. Qe7! looks good.

19…c3?! Leaving the pawn on c4 is stronger, for example 19…Rb7 preparing to double on the b-file.

20. b3 Now the c3 pawn is a goner.

20…Rb4 21. h6 21. Qe3 also kept a big edge for white.

21…Qh8 22. Ne2 Rb6 23. Ng3? The easiest win is 23. e5! d5 24. Nxc3.

23… Rb5? 23…Bb5 was the toughest. Anyway, we’re far afield from the opening now, so we will show the rest rapidly.

Let’s see my 7th round game vs GM Slavko Cicak. Shortly after this interesting game concluded, we could both be found at the Bally’s poker table. I, in fact, lost my $100 chip stack in record time by betting wildly. GM Varuzh Akobian could be spotted at the next table over.

GM Slavko Cicak – M. Ginsburg Round 7 NAO Las Vegas 12/28/08.

Sicilian Defense, 3. c3 4. Bc4 irregular

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. c3 Nf6 4. Bc4!? A pet line of Cicak’s that he employed in a prior round (not known to me at the time of this game).

And for something different

“Two could play at that

To his surprise, instead of making a pass at him, she sauntered over to join him at the service niche. She took up an Imperial armorers’ sponge in her fingers, and began cleaning and disinfecting the blade of an épée, which showed that she knew what she was doing.

Her curled hand stroked firmly up and down the long shaft, leaving a gleaming trail of moisture where the sponge in her palm had pressed. The erotic suggestion was almost certainly deliberate.

…has played chess with a Grand Master and former President of the World Chess Federation (hence the chess-pun titles of her alien romances).

She has spent folly filled summers in a Spanish castle; dined on a sheikh’s yacht with royalty; been seranaded (on a birthday) by a rockstar and an English nobleman; ridden in a pace car at the 1993 Indy 500; received the gold level of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award; and generally lived on the edge of the sort of life that inspires her romances about high-living alien gods.

As for me, I’ve lived on the edge of the sort of life which inspires me to note that there are at least three errors of English in the paragraph above. But that’s probably why I shall be playing chess today, and Ms Cherry (not, I suspect, her maiden name) will be living a life among alien gods. Or something similar.

Or maybe she will be busy at her desk, adding to her apparently Orwell-inspired oeuvre – among which are such works as Forced Mate, Mating Net and Insufficient Mating Material.

I, at least, am not making this up.”

Author’s note: the jig may be up – I may have to give up the anonymity afforded by the moniker “Ms. Cherry.”

Blast from the Past

Going back to 1990, here is the author tangled up with Jorge Zamora (Sammour-Hasbun) in Massachusetts.

A Danish Appearance

I just got a broadcast e-mail from John Henderson. Danish Grandmaster Lars Bo Hansen is going to appear on John Watson’s Chess.FM Show. A propos of Denmark, that’s where Shakespeare’s play Hamlet took place. A quick refresher:

The protagonist of Hamlet is Prince Hamlet of Denmark, son of the recently deceased King Hamlet. After the death of King Hamlet, his brother, Claudius hastily marries King Hamlet’s widow, Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. In the background is Denmark’s long-standing feud with neighbouring Norway, and an invasion led by the Norwegian prince, Fortinbras, is expected.

The play opens on a cold night at Elsinore, the Danish royal castle. The sentinels try to persuade Hamlet’s friend Horatio that they have seen King Hamlet’s ghost, when it appears again. After hearing from Horatio of the Ghost’s appearance, Hamlet resolves to see the Ghost himself. That night, the Ghost appears to Hamlet. He tells Hamlet that he is the spirit of his father, and discloses that Claudius murdered King Hamlet by pouring poison in his ears. The Ghost demands that Hamlet avenge him; Hamlet agrees and decides to fake madness to avert suspicion. He is, however, uncertain of the Ghost’s reliability.

Busy with affairs of state, Claudius and Gertrude try to avert an invasion by Prince Fortinbras of Norway. Perturbed by Hamlet’s continuing deep mourning for his father and his increasingly erratic behaviour, they send two student friends of his—Rosencrantz and Guildenstern—to discover the cause of Hamlet’s changed behaviour. Hamlet greets his friends warmly, but quickly discerns that they have turned against him.

Polonius is Claudius’ trusted chief counsellor; his son, Laertes, is returning to France, and his daughter, Ophelia, is courted by Hamlet. Neither Polonius nor Laertes thinks Hamlet is serious about Ophelia, and they both warn her off. Shortly afterwards, Ophelia is alarmed by Hamlet’s strange behaviour and reports to her father that Hamlet rushed into her room but stared at her and said nothing. Polonius assumes that the “ecstasy of love”[7] is responsible for Hamlet’s madness, and he informs Claudius and Gertrude. Later, in the so-called Nunnery Scene, Hamlet rants at Ophelia, and insists she go “to a nunnery“.

A DaneAppearscirca 2008

Going back to 1989, here is Lars Bo competing in the 1989 Berlin Summer Open (Joel Benjamin and I also made the foray to Berlin; this was just before the Berlin Wall came down!).

Lars Bo Hansen, Berlin, West Germany (American Sektor), 1989

What else is notable about this Chess.FM event? Well, first of all, (and this is not widely known), John Watson was once a partyer. What else is notable? Lars Bo Hansen had a life as an IM before he was a GM! Here he is as an IM battling yours truly in a provincial Danish town back in the day.

12…g6 Now if 12…Nc6?! 13. Qd3 and white has scored well. White has to play very concretely now to compensate for his isolated queen pawn.

Position after 12…g6

13. Bh6 Bg7 14. Qd2 The main line in the databases is 14. Bxg7 Kxg7 15. Qf3. However, 15. Qd2! is dangerous for black (planning Rac1 and also sometimes h2-h4). For example, 15. Qd2 b6 16. Rac1 Bb7 17. f3!? and white retains some pressure. The move in the game also has these dark square ideas.

29… bxa2 30. Qb3! It is kind of cool to be able to hang one’s queen on purpose, but after black’s next white has nothing better than to steer for the draw.

30…Bc6! It was too much to hope for black to fall into the elementary tactical trap 30…Qc6?? 31. Qxb7 winning.

31. Rxe8+ Bxe8 32. Qxb5 Bxb5 33. e8=Q+ Bxe8 34. Rxe8+ Bf8 35. Re1 Bg7 And it’s a draw by repetition. A very interesting game! I had the distinct sense I was playing a Danish version of solid American GM Yasser Seirawan.

Narrow Miss for the Scorpions

Arizona defeated Seattle 2.5 – 1.5 in Week 10 but if we had scored 3-1 we would have made the playoffs on tiebreak, edging out both Seattle and Chicago, because Chicago (despite IM Pasalic defeating IM Bartholomew) lost to Dallas 1.5 – 2.5.

The Arizona match started well with IM Altounian holding += (and eventually drawing) vs GM Serper, and NM Harper winning a nice attacking game a while later on board 4 vs NM Lee. That left Robby Adamson on board 3 playing WGM K. Rohonyan and me on board 2 as black against FM Slava Mikhailuk.

S. Mikhailuk (SEA) – M. Ginsburg (ARZ) Catalan Accepted

1.c4 e6 2.Nf3 d5 3.d4 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Qa4+ Nbd7 6.Bg2 a6 7.Qxc4 b5 8.Qc2 Bb7 9.Bg5 c5 I had prepared something different but in the game white avoids the most critical paths. 10.0-0 Rc8 11.Qd2?! Trying to draw? 11…h6 12.Bxf6 Nxf6 Black has no problems and, as happened in the game, can put his dark-squared bishop to very good use.

26…Bc7 27.Nf3 Bd6 28.Rb6 Nc3 29.Nfd4 Kf6 30.Nxb5 Nxb5 31.Rxb5 Bxa3 32.Ra5 Ra8! 33.Rxa8 Rxa8 The smoke has cleared somewhat and black has a solid edge. He has a better minor piece and pressure against the weak pawn. This is actually a textbook example of the bishop’s superiority over the knight in an open board.

34.Rd1

Position after 34. Rd1. Black to play and torture white for a long, long time.

34…Bb4?? Totally wrong. 34…e5! keeps the a-pawn locked up, prevents Rd4, and black continues to improve his game with kingside pawn advances. He can press for a long time for the full point. At this point I had a psychological problem – I had glanced at Robby’s game and Rohonyan had a strong knight on d4 but some weak pawns. It looked unclear to me. Since we were about to go up 1.5 – 0.5 (Harper was winning) I wasn’t sure if I needed to win or draw. This uncertainty persisted, because as I got low on time I didn’t recheck (a blunder) Robby’ game – he shortly won a pawn and was on his way to winning, but I never knew that. If I knew he was winning, I would have saved a lot of energy and time just drawing and not pressing crazily for a win.

35.Rd4! Now white’s a2-pawn escapes its tomb and gets to a4 and it’s equal.

The aesthetic 47…hxg3!! is a great move in sudden death. On the very plausible 48. Ne4 black has the problem-like 48… g2! 49. Rc1 g3!! and only white can worry now. In time-trouble white would probably choose the safe 48. fxg3 Kxd6 49. a5 and then 49…Rb8+! sidelines the white king — 50. Ka4 e5 51. a6 e4 and black will make a draw.

58…Ra8?? Why this passive move? If 58..Kf3? white has the elementray tactic 59. Rf7+!, but with a little more time I spot the simple 58…Ke3! to assist the e-pawn and draw. 58…Ke3! 59. Rb7 threatens Rb8, but then 59…Ra8 60. Rb8 Rxa7 61. Kxa7 e4 and it’s a simple draw. The text makes black’s drawing path narrower. I had very little time left and was tortured by thoughts of “not winning” (not realizing Robby was winning) and didn’t know I only had to draw! Bad team play.

59.Kb7 Rxa7+ 60.Kxa7 Kf3 61.Rf7+ Ke3 62.Kb6

Position after 62. Kb6

The entire playoff comes down to this diagram. Only one way to qualify…

62…Kd4?? At this late stage, it was still drawn. The blunder in the game is the final straw. A student of endings knows, without needing time to think, 62…e4! 63. Kc5 Kd3 64. Rd7+ Kc3 65. Re7 (65. Ra7 comes down to the same thing) 65…Kd3 66. Ra7 e3 67. Ra3+ Kd2 68. Kd4 e2 69. Ra2+ Kd1 70. Kd3 hoping for 70…d1=Q?? 71. Ra1 mate. But black underpromotes, 70…d1=N+! and after 71. Kc3 Nf3! black draws and we make the playoffs. Of course it would be tragicomic here if black had set ‘always queen’ on in Blitzin and that caused 70…d1=Q. Very disappointing.

Robby won a few minutes later against WGM Rohonyan to give the Scorpions a 2.5 – 1.5 match victory 😦

An agonizing playoff miss by the narrowest of margins.

Unrelated: Remind me why the ban on assault weapons was lifted?

The availability of weapons that spray out lots of bullets really fast is not exactly the best thing for society. Let’s see two recently examples (every day there are more). Conversely but not surprisingly, it’s hard to find a story where “Joe Six Pack” owning an AK-47 or an Uzi is a “good thing” for society. In any case, thanks, NRA for this Halloween merriment!

SUMTER, South Carolina (AP) 11/01/08 — An ex-convict who said he thought he was being robbed gunned down a 12-year-old trick-or-treater, spraying nearly 30 rounds with an assault rifle from inside his home after hearing a knock on the door, police said Saturday.

And thanks NRA for good-timey machine-gun shoot-offs!

Westfield, MA 10/26/08

An event at a Westfield gun club turned tragic today when an 8-year-old boy accidentally shot himself in the head and later died at a Springfield hospital, Westfield Police said.

The child’s death — caused by a fully automatic Uzi machine gun — appears to have been an accident; but it remains under investigation, police said.

The Westfield Police Department released a statement about what they described as a self-inflicted, accidental shooting, which occurred at 2 p.m. at the Westfield Sportsman’s Club on Furrowtown Road.

In a telephone interview tonight, Westfield Police Officer Carl Girard confirmed the boy died of his injuries — a wound to the right side of the head — at Baystate Medical Center. Police did not release the child’s name, nor did they say where he lived. The Springfield Republican reported that the child was not from Westfield.

“Witnesses state that he was shooting the weapon down range when the force of the weapon made it travel up and back toward his head, where he suffered the injury,” the police statement read.

The boy’s father was at the event and accompanied him to the hospital, police said.

The sportsman’s club was hosting its annual “Great New England Pumpkin Shoot” during the weekend, police said. Officials from the club could not be reached.

The event was organized by C.O.P. Firearms & Training, an Amherst company which, according to its website, organizes machine gun shoots throughout New England. Officials from that group also could not be reached. (if they started to talk about the fundamental right to own assault weapons, that might generate further bad press).

Predictors Foiled by Wontons

The USCL predictors didn’t see the chameleon nature of the Scorpions in Week 9 – we came up hissing.

Ed Scimia wrote, “Chicago vs. Arizona: This is a huge match for the Blaze, while the Scorpions are only mathematically alive for a playoff spot. Much like Seattle, I think Chicago will come up big knowing they need the win. Prediction: Chicago 2.5, Arizona 1.5 ” But a chess match is just four guys playing four games – no way for the squad to cross-energize itself with stunning coups. 😀

The Lime of the Bionic variety similarly went astray predicting Chicago 3 Arizona 1. Newcomer MatanP picked Chicago 2.5, and Ron Young hedges his with “probably” but went for Chicago 2.5 also. Arun Sharma said, “Like previous matches, it’s clear who this match holds more meaning for given each team’s respective playoff hopes. Add to that the fact that Van de Mortel and Tate have both been playing quite well this season, and Ginsburg and Rensch have been struggling, I think this one’s easy to call. Chicago 3 – 1.” Indeed, on paper, it was easy to call. But we had an “X” factor!

What none of them knew was that our team ate a marvelous Chinese food meal before the game! This boosted us (well, almost all of us) by adding 150 ELO points to each player. Crab wontons, shrimp with orange peel, and other gourmet items normally only seen in World Championship matches. It is absolutely critical to eat well (but not eat too much) before a match! I am not advocating here Feldsteinian eating-noisily-and-messily-at-the-board. This “X” factor propelled us (well, three of us) into other-worldly Caissic strength. So the next time a Scimia or a Young or a Sharma or even a “MatanP” (who??) sits down and ponders, ponder this: will we be nourished by crab wontons?

16…Qb7 17.h4 bxc4 18.Bxc4 Rc7 The daring 18…Nxd5!? looks to be playable. After 19. Bxg7 Nb6! 20. Bxf7+ Kxf7 21. Bc3 the computer says, believe it or not, 21…Ke8!? to hit f3. It’s hard to believe, but the king seems to be finding light square safety on d7. On the other hand, 18…a5?! 19. h5! looks good for white.

19.b3?! Not very impressive. The non-human 19. Qa5! is a good choice. The direct 19. h5!? Rac8 20. Qd3 is also possible with very sharp play. If 20. Qd3 Qb4 21. a3 Qa4 22. Bb5! gives white a good ending.

were fairly interesting. I will go over some of them in a day or two after I recover from the verdammt drive to and from Mesa, AZ.

Chess Dregs

For a jaw-dropping sleaze maneuver, see this non-profit’s victimization tale. It’s hard to believe people would behave like this (perhaps learned in a bad MBA program or the perpetrator is otherwise hard-up for cash?). Symptomatic of society in general or just an aberrant small piece of poop dropped on Illinois Chess by a diseased seagull?

Corporate Chess and Bridge News

In merger talks certain to doom both companies, National Master Stephen Feinberg and his Cerberus private equity firm are trying to merge Chryster and GM. This ‘maneuver’ is another question mark following the question mark move of Cerberus acquiring Chryster in the first place (and a share of the toxic GMAC). And I cannot understand how bridge player Warren Spector avoided being on Anderson Cooper’s heavily watched video series “10 Most Wanted Culprits of the Collapse.” A young guy groomed to be the successor of the (now down-in-flames) Bear Stearns (with plenty of aloof energy) is more to blame than his sedentary bridge-playing boss, Jimmy Cayne. Have you noticed a trend? Chess and bridge are disasters in the corporate setting. 🙂

Update: Chrysler Doomed – Checkmate

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Chrysler LLC plans to reduce its white-collar workforce by 25% by the end of the year, the company said in an announcement Friday.

The cuts, about 5,000 workers in total, will come from Chrysler’s salaried and supplemental workforce. Chrysler has about 18,500 white-collar workers.

“As I mentioned last week, the Cerberus infatuation with the auto biz is so done that they can’t wait to unload Chrysler, a humiliating admission from the self-proclaimed Masters of the Universe and an emphatic indictment of the formerly unimpeachable Cerberus brain trust/posse. That the automobile business is unlike any other in the world was completely lost on Cerberus managers. And the fact that they entered the fray at the exact wrong moment in history is indisputable. But more on that in a moment.”

At least chess gets some good PR here – masters of some sort of Universe.